Such devices and processes for producing metallic profiles, such as for example steel profiles, are used for example in the area of motor vehicle construction, in order to produce structural or safety parts that are completely or locally hardened.
For example, DE 101 20 063 A1 discloses a process for producing profiles from steel, a strip material being fed to a rolling-profiling device, in which it is shaped into a profile. During the shaping process or after the shaping process, the profile is hardened by a heat treatment and subsequent quenching. Since the rolling-profiling and the hardening are carried out in a shaping-hardening device in a continuous process, this process allows efficient and cost-effective production of hardened profiles for motor vehicle construction that are cut to length into individual profiled components in a cutting-to-length unit following the shaping-hardening device. However, it has been found to be disadvantageous that the profiles or the profiled components are only protected inadequately from corrosion.